The work “The­ater of Com­bus­tion” stages the act of burn­ing fuel as a the­atri­cal event. The main actor here­by is a light sculp­ture in the geom­e­try of a methane mol­e­cule, which belongs to the group of alka­nes, a main com­po­nent of oil and gas. This sculp­tural enlarge­ment of a mol­e­c­u­lar struc­ture is posi­tioned at dif­fer­ent sites of oil pro­duc­tion and pro­cess­ing on the Absheron Penin­su­la in Azer­bai­jan. Dri­ven by a gaso­line pow­er gen­er­a­tor the sculp­ture illu­mi­nates its petro-chem­i­cal sur­round­ings by burn­ing the resource, which was exploit­ed or refined there. The indus­tri­al land­scapes and facil­i­ties, which are pho­tographed dur­ing dusk and dawn, thus become mys­te­ri­ous places, where fos­sil fuel is turned into a cult object, sculp­tural­ly mate­ri­al­ized and rit­u­al­ly burned.

2017: Steel, neon lights, electrical cables, power generator, photographed at different sites